DO WE LEARN FROM OUR MISTAKES

                                                                                                       

SO MANY HORRIBLE                 ACCIDENTS ON OUR ROADS!

One woman, Jacinta Achieng, a survivor, together with her son Brian, from a truly horrific bus crash in 2000 was reported at the time as saying 'Ít is by God's Grace that we have survived - I know now that there IS God, and we shall Praise the Word of the Lord all the time'.    It seems she had not had much time for God before the accident.   And it was a hard way to  wake up to the fact of God.    BUT what of those other who survived with her?   Were they all aware  of God's protection and care?   Or were some of them as blind after the accident as they were before?
And then again, what about all those who actually DIED in the crash?  Where are they NOW?  Were they especially sinful that they had to die while others lived?    So many questions.    There was another Accident involving two matatus and a falling Blue Gum tree that fell on them both just near Wareng School, here in Eldoret.   In one of the vehicles a man was sitting between others, and those on either side of him died instantly - but HE lived!   WHY?     How did it happen that the tree fell just at that moment, and was so selective in choosing who it struck and killed?   And of course, there are all those who are grieving because of the loss of a loved one.   
Where IS God when we are hurting?    
Tragedy and Hurt always raise a multitude of questions among the Believing and Unbelieving alike - and, let's face it, there is hurt occuring all the time, everywhere.   People are hurting all over the world, as they suffer the pain of living.   If God is a God of LOVE, how is it that He allows all this suffering and torment?    And, whilst not easily finding an Answer to these questions, many turn away from the whole idea of God, and even set themselves against Him, and all those who declare God exists!     Hard to blame them at times!
JOB - in the Bible - lost his property, his family, his land, and his health, all in a matter of days.   His wife said to him 'Why don't you just curse God and die?     But Job replied and said to her "You speak as one of the foolish women speak.   Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?'   Earlier, when the first news of the death of all his children in a hurricane was brought to him he had said  'Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there.    The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.   Blessed be the name of the Lord'.     There are not many who take total calamity in their stride, like that. Job was only able do so because he had an unfailing faith and trust in the existence and goodness of God, no matter what happened.   It is also said of ABRAHAM, concerning his indefatigable faith in God, that - under hopeless circumstances Abraham hopefully believed.     He had nothing, and no one other than God, to hang on to.    Abraham Lincoln once said   ''I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go'.   Overwhelming circumstances coming unexpectedly upon us can often force us to cry out to God - a God we had previously ignored, as we trusted in our own strength and conceit.
And God, the only God, who created each one of us is determined to do all that He can to catch our eye and make us realise our need of Him.   He is even willing to HURT us and to make us SCREAM out!    WHY?   Because He Loves us, and knows that if we do not turn to Him, and trust completely in Him, we WILL die a death far more terrible than any we might still have to face in this life.
Look at Luke 13v1-5.    Some told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the Sacrifices.     And Jesus said to them  -  'Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, just because they suffered such things?   I tell you NO.   BUT unless you repent you will all likewise perish.   OR those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them;  do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem?  I tell you NO, but unless you repent you will all likewise perish''.   SIN has nothing to do with people dying in bus accidents and so on.   We are all sinners, and all facing the Death Sentence UNLESS we have come to Christ and the Cross.   HAPPY are those who die in faith with Christ, for they are now with God for ever, and have no Judgement to face that will seperate them from God.    BUT, alive or dead, without God we are IN our sins, and under God's Wrath, and wait only for Judgement.   God is anxious to make us to consider our end, and where we now stand.    Where to YOU stand?   Are you ready, at a moment's notice. to meet your Maker and look Him in the eye without FEAR - but with gladness?
In the last Book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation, we are told of the terrible worldwide calamities and plagues, and judgments that God will let loose upon Mankind in a last effort to bring him to his senses; to make him to realise his iniquity, and to repent of his sins. In Revelation 9v20 it is written -  'But the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone and wood which can neither see nor hear, nor walk.   And they did not repent of their murders, or their sorceries, or their sexual immorality or their thefts...''   ALL these HURTS will be permitted by a Loving God in an effort to turn those living a lifestyle unacceptable to Him.   To bring them a change of mind and heart - to repentance.      The whole purpose of CHASTISEMENT is turn us away from a worse punishment - from DEATH itself.      INDEED, a very old and wise doctor of medicine from India once shared with me when I was suffering pain, and he said, 'Be GLAD for the pain - for without it you would not have come to me, and I would not be able to save your life.   Pain alerts us to our NEED, and LEADS to LIFE''.    He was a Brahmin Hindu, and his words opened up my understanding to so many truths.

BUT JOB was a good man, and was in favour with God, was close to God.    YET God permitted him to go through the worst of multiple calamities.    WHY?    It was not to catch Job's eye or heart.   NO! It was to prove something to the Devil.   Satan was sure he could make Job curse God and thus die,   but God knew that a man or woman who truly trusts in Him would never be moved.   He or she would be secure, established, and unable to be brought down.
Kind David in Psalm 16v8 says   - I have set the Lord continually before me;   because HE is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.''   and in Psalm 23v4 he says ÝES. though I walk through the deep sunless valley of the shadow of  death (hopelessness) I will fear and dread no evil, for YOU are with me..'  And in Psalm 62v7 he says 'With God rests my salvation and my glory; He is my Rock of unyielding strength and impenetrable hardness, and my refuge is in God.   Trust in, lean upon, rely on, and have confidence in Him AT ALL TIMES.''     God wants us to know these things.   He also wants the Devil and all the Powers in High Places to SEE this.    We MAY be hurt, may suffer loss, may endure emotional conflict and anguish of heart, BUT HE WILL BRING US THROUGH INTO JOY.    In Psalm 66v12 David again writes and says out of his own experience - "You caused men to ride over our hearts when we were prostrate; we went through fire and through water, but you brought us out into a broad, watered place;  to abundance and refreshment.'

JACINTA,  the lady in the bus, having come through what must have seemed worse than death, could truly say from her experience - "I NOW know there is GOD''.     And thus also David again in Psalm 124 writes - Íf it had not been the LORD was on our side, Israel can now say.   If it had not been the :LORD who was on our side when men rose up against us, then they would quickly have swallowed us up alive when their wrath was kindled against us; THEN the waters would have overwhelmed us and swept us away; the torrent would have gone over us; THEN the proud waters would have gone over us.   BLESSED be the Lord who has not given us as a prey to their teeth.   We are like a bird escaped from the snare of the fowlers.   The snare is broken and we have escaped.  Our help is in the name of the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.''    ALL this is so true, but we MAY still suffer loss; we may suffer pain, we may shed tears - BUT we will never be given up for dead by the One Who wants to SAVE us from all our afflictions if we BELIEVE in Him.

WHERE IS GOD WHEN IT HURTS?
HE is right by our side; with us in the trial and in the hurt - and HE wants to prove Himself to you, and He wants YOU to prove HIM for yourself by trusting in Him, and trusting in HIM in the midst of your pain.   HE doesn't just want your love and trust when all is well and life is easy.  He wants you to love and trust HIM in the Bad Times, so that He can show you even better days.
DON'T spend time trying to work our WHY the Accident happened, or why some DIED and some did not.    IF your life was spared it was for REASON.    If people died it was for a PURPOSE.   Remember even JESUS died and suffered, yet HE was without sin, innocent of all accusation.     God let HIM hang and suffer, and DIE there on the Cross, even as He loved Him. WHY?     It was for ME - for YOU.      It HURT Jesus, and GREAVED his friends - but the PURPOSE was to bring eternal JOY.    TRUST IN  the Lord with all your heart and BELIEVE in His Goodness, and in the fact that HE wants the BEST for you.

HAND OVER your doubts, bitterness, hurts, and unbelief to God right now, and say LORD, I want to trust in you right now just as I am.       He will come right there where you are, to quieten, comfort and altogether satisfy all the longings of your soul.

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LET JESUS BE YOUR STRENGTH AND SHIELD

30th JULY 1999 - I wrote this article, and it was broadcast on Radio SAYARE   Today nothing has changed.

'LAST WEEK the papers were reporting the death of John F. Kennedy Junior.   Many members of this family, including John Junior's father, President J.F. Kennedy, have died over a comparatively short period of time, giving rise to the idea that maybe the Family have been 'cursed'.    BBC-tv stated at the time of junior's death -   ...another tragedy, the latest in a long history which has become known as the Curse of the Kennedy's.
BUT is it really possible for family to be put under a 'curse'? Can it actually happen?   Yes, I believe it can indeed -IF you believe it for yourself - anything can happen.   Certainly many people also believe this throughout the world.   The BIBLE believeS in the power of the Devil and evil spirits, and prohibits any godly person from becoming involved with such powers and practices.
The Book of Leviticus 10v31 in the Old Testament of the Bible says   'TURN not to those mediums who have familiar spirits or to wizards, do not seek them out, to be defiled by them.   I am the LORD.'        AND Isaiah 8v9 says - 'When people (instead of putting their trust in God) shall say to you - Consult for direction mediums and wizards who chirrup and mutter, should you not instead seek and consult your God.   Should you consult the dead on behalf of the living? - think about this.'
THE KENNEDY FAMILY have, reportedly, all been faithful practicing Catholics.   Is it possible for Christians to be actually cursed - or perhaps even be involved in the occult?   Do YOU believe that?

Certainly it is a fact that many Christians today, even though they may testify to being 'Saved' still often lean toward the Witch-doctor to provide themselves with comfort, protection, and even deliverance from evil spirits, curses and even other human enemies and so on, trying to fight evil, and even their suspected foes with more evil!
And others will go to the Fortune Teller to gain some insight into their future, in order to give themselves some kind of advantage, willingly agreeing to wear charms and amulets as further aids to 'Good Luck' against some fear or another.   YET why should the Devil protect or care for any that is not already his own, and who does not believe in him?  Some bystanders in Jesus day seeing Him casting out demons, said that He cast them out by the power of Satan.   Jesus replied and said to them 'If Satan is divided against himself how shall his kingdom stand - Luke11v18.   Do YOU believe that the devil will actually work against himself?   NO, indeed not.   It is the Devil's work to curse, and to bind, and to destroy, and he will not save us from such things... Those who consult with mediums, wizards, and other occult persons, believing in them and their ability to keep them safe are CURSED still more when they go to the the devil for deliverance!    AND WHEN ANY TRUE CHRISTIAN goes back to such practices in his or her's Christian Life, he /she puts themselves voluntarily back into the hand of the Enemy, and out of the Redeemer's Hand.

To go to the Witch-doctor or Fortune Teller is to go AWAY from God, and His Christ.   and to cease trusting in Him.   And that is SIN.    If you are NOT trusting in GOD you have disobeyed the 1stCommandment, and you are in the hand of Satan, -   and he can do whatever he likes with you - and he likes to arrange your death.
JESUS once said  - ' When you pray believe that you have what you ask for, and you will receive it ' - Mark 11v24    In other words you get what you BELIEVE for - good or bad.   Yes God will let you have what you WANT badly enough - but be as a dying person.    And if you believe for sickness, if you believe for trouble of any kind, if believe in being cursed, that is what you will experience in your life.    Why not just believe in the Goodness of God instead?
SOME YEARS AGO, a young teenage boy in my home discovered that someone had put some bones inside one of his school exercise books, and hidden them in his belongings.   He came to report to me that someone had put a curse upon him.  I went immediately to his belongings and found the bones just as he had described.   I took the bones from the book into my hands in the Name of Jesus, and went with them out of the house.   And there I burned them to ashes.     Whilst I was doing this another young man began to get very excited, jumping up and down, and saying that he was the one who had placed the bones in the book in the first place - AND, that now I had touched them I would surely die!   These boys were all in their teenage, and all of them now began to crowd around me, as silent as the grave, no doubt waiting for me to actually fall down dead at their feet - that was almost fifty years ago!     Brother and Sisters! If Jesus is your Saviour, and if your life is under the protection of the Blood that He shed on the Cross, you have nothing to fear - NOTHING shall by any means hurt you.   This incident I have just related concerning 'old bones' was the beginning many of the first children that came to shelter in Testimony Faith Homes learning that Jesus IS more than any ju-ju.   More powerful than Satan himself.     If  JESUS is with you GOD is with you.
BUT there was another incident.    In 1971 my wife and I were living in Siaya District as it then was, some eleven kilometers from Luanda Market at a place known as Ramula.   Returning from Kisumu, we found ourselves motoring into a heavy wind and rain storm.   As we journied I kept looking at the sky and saying 'I'm sure our tin roof will blow of our house if this continues.....REALLY I KNOW it WILL blow off!'    As we turned into the compound a few minutes later the tin roof of our house just lifted up and sailed past and over us and across the road into a field.    We lost all our personal effects in that storm, which continued unabated for some hours.   I had believed for the 'evil' and forgot my Saviour.    I believed for the worst and that is what I received.   It taught me lesson - though not, regrettably, for the last time.       IF we have trusted in Jesus, and the Blood shed for us on the Cross, we have no more need to look elsewhere for our Salvation.   WHY?    Because in the Name of Jesus even Demons have to flee.   When we are under the Blood not even the Devil Himself can Harm us!    
In the Old Testament Book of Exodus chapter 12 when Moses under God's direction was helping the Israelites to leave Egypt and slavery. He was told to make sure that every family killed a lamb, and first off, daubed its blood over their doors.   And God said,  WHEN I SEE THE BLOOD I will pass over you, and the plague shall not come upon you.     It was  a DEATH plague and thousands of Egyptians died that day, but all those who put the blood of the lamb over their doors LIVED.     Because of their faith in the blood of the lamb people lived and were delivered from their slavery.
They called it The PASSOVER.      To-day God points to JESUS and tells us that to as many as believe Him, He will be OUR Passover - our Saviour, and Deliverer.   Our Protector from all things.
NONE OF US need be under a curse; none of us need to invoke our ancestors or other spirits, or the power of the witch doctor, to keep ourselves safe, or to defend ourselves, or to free ourselves, or to deliver ourselves, or to provide for ourselves. All we need is to TESTIFY loud and clear as to WHOSE we are, and to WHOM we belong. Satan and every evil thing will have to flee from us.   NO WEAPON that is formed against us shall prosper.

Revelation 12v11 says - 'They overcame him - the Devil and all his angels and servants - by the Blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony.'

DON'T BE AFRAID,,,,,BUT BELIEVE in the Lord Jesus Christ.    Are you still tempted to visit the Witch Doctor or to rely on fetishes?    Are you wearing some unchristian charm or ju-ju?    Are you still trusting in your ancestors to see you through. Put such things FAR from you.   Cast ALL you care, instead, upon JESUS.   He is more than Conqueror, and will KEEP you safe from enemy and tribulation alike, bringing you unscathed and untouched through into victory and safety.

BEGIN THE WEEK AHEAD with confidence.    Put your trust in God, and His Redeemer and Maker, JESUS CHRIST.   Come under the Blood of the Lamb with me, and let us together believe to DO great exploits for the Kingdom of God.   Remember, NOTHING that is planned against you can prosper, as long as you are hiding under the Blood of the Lamb that was slain for your salvation.

HAVE A FEARLESS WEEK!